About Grow Local Tacoma - Pierce County

The Community Gardening Program
The Tacoma-Pierce County ACHIEVE coalition started in 2008 under a cooperative grant from the Centers for Disease Control and the YMCA of the USA. This initiative seeks to reduce childhood obesity using a policy, systems and environmental change approach. Community Gardens was one of the approached that was agreed upon by coalition members.

In 2009, the Tacoma-Pierce County ACHIEVE Coalition convened community partners in the interest of creating a plan to increase the number of community gardens in Tacoma and Pierce County. Those partners include:

City of Tacoma
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Pierce Conservation District
Cascade Land Conservancy
Tacoma Water District
Sound Community Gardens
Tacoma Farmer’s Markets
Metro Parks Tacoma
Washington State University Pierce County Extension
Healthy Communities of Pierce County
Multicare Health Systems
YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties Friends and Servants

Since that time, much progress has been made. A Community Garden Program has been established and a coordinator hired through the Cascade Land Conservancy. The program plan includes 4 main goals:

1) Support established community gardens – if you have a community garden, contact Kristen McIvor to get plugged into the network of support.

2) Develop new community gardens – Is you neighborhood in need of a community garden? Let Coordinator Kristen know and we will work with you to determine interest and assess the necessary steps.

3) Coordinate education opportunities – got an idea for a workshop that you’d like to attend? Know something that you’d like to share? Contact Kristen to discuss volunteer teaching opportunities.

4) Support an increase of food from gardens to food banks. The goal is for every community garden to contribute some of their season’s bounty to those in need. Not all gardens have food bank plots at this time, but many do.

The History of this website
In early 2007, Exit133 began a conversation in Tacoma about community gardens. The end result was an informal alliance between several groups. As the year progressed, the alliance solidified around representatives of the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, Tagro, the Pierce Conservation District, and Exit133. This group spent 2007 building up the community gardens in Tacoma through publicity, organizing gardeners and the first annual Community Garden Tour.

After a successful 2007, the winter planning season shifted the conversation toward the idea of a healthy, sustainable foodshed. Foodsheds are the agricultural equivalent of watersheds: The “agro-ecological footprint” necessary to feed a community or a region.

As 2008 began, the move toward foodshed issues brought us to education and outreach. Through generous support from Multicare’s Center for Healthy Living, this website was created.

It is centered on the idea that healthy, resilient communities are connected to each other and their food supply, and that people should know how to grow their own food and be able to share it with others. It is the hope that this website will both provide information about food growing, buying, preparing and sharing and also connect you to the growing movement of people in the Tacoma/Pierce County region working to create a vibrant, sustainable food system that is affordable and accessible to all.

If you have any suggestions, comments, or information you would like to share, contact the administrator Kristen at kristenm@cascadeland.org